Ideas Hatched is dedicated to the proposition that you are more politically conservative than you think you are, and I mean to prove it.

Monday, November 20, 2006

2006 Election and the Birth of the Most Ethical Congress

Well, that was a good old-fashioned a**-kicking during the election, and all I have to show for it is $30 in winnings. Should of bet the Senate race – much better odds there. Elections are funny things – very messy data that is tortured to no end to make completely unsupportable suggestions of their longer-term meaning. The Clinton election in 1992 was the death of the Republicans; the Republican Revolution in 1994 was the death of big Government liberalism; the Republican setbacks in 1998 were a kick to the head of the recently resurrected Republicans that would send them to another death in 2000; the 2000 elections was the death of the Democratic party, even its moderate elements, with the burial of it side by side with the long dead big Government liberalism; and here we are in 2006 when the electorate, with big government liberalism back in good health and packaged with his new friend defeatist pessimism, while ideology and big government conservatism dies a swift death. Our politics are like the Night of the Living Dead.

Now if all I cared about was my tribe being in power, I’d feel comforted with Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of what she promises to be the most ethical House of Reps in American history, because it won’t be long until my tribe takes over. Last time we heard that promise it was Bill Clinton talking about his administration in 1992 while in the back of his mind he was conjuring up creative uses for Cuban cigars, the market price for the Lincoln bedroom, and ways to raise plenty of cash from Chinese commies. Her first move in the most ethical House of Reps was to support John Murtha for Majority Leader, who expressed within days of the vote that the House ethics bill being floated by the Dems was a load of crap, but he’d support it because Pelosi was in his corner, and this was her baby. When Murtha went down in the vote, Pelosi stood by her man saying how valuable it was that he “spoke truth to power,” which is a cliché that has long over-stayed its welcome. And unless she was referring to the portion from the Abscam tapes, one of the biggest Congressional scandals in US history, when he said to FBI agent dressed as an Arab Shiek – “is that a suitcase full of money in your robe or are you just glad to see me?,” I wouldn’t know what she is referring to.

Meanwhile William Jefferson, Democratic Congressman from New Orleans, is in a runoff in December after no candidate received more than 50 percent of the vote. The state of the most ethical House in history could hang in the balance in the Big Easy, as Jefferson is known for coincidentally having $90,000 in cash in his freezer. Apparently he’s clean because the bills are all frozen together and may not thaw properly, making their status as legal tender questionable. If only Johnny Cockrane were available to defend him – “if the money doesn’t transmit, you must acquit!”

I was lamenting to a friend that the Democratic party never seems to put the pressure on its crooked members to quit. Have sex with a page – we’ll heap praise on you when you die; drive a woman off a bridge in a drunken stupor – step right up as the leader of the opposition; rape a woman in Arkansas – hmmm, better rethink this whole date rape issue and have a further dialogue; stash $90K in your freezer – there’s gotta be a plausible explanation; leave the National Archives with classified documents of national important that fell into your socks - we all just laughed ‘cause that’s crazy mixed up Sandy for you; payoff your mistress out of your Rainbow Coalition to cover the costs of your illegitimate kid – when can we sign you up for a spot on the Today show?; have sex with a teenage campaign worker – well then the Rainbow coalition has a place for you as a youth counseler! And that’s just the Kennedy family! These guys are beyond parody, and I could spend the next two years laughing my ass off if the rest of the country realized the high comedy, but instead most people think this is the West Wing rather than the Office.

Anyway, all of that aside, whatever change in policy this spurs, I honestly hope that it works. I don’t think that anything coming from the Democrats with respect to foreign policy will do anything to improve our standing, and much of what they are flirting with could make it far worse. But the thing about the world is that there is an element of unpredictability, and a really bad bet can come through even as a good one goes south. It’s better to be lucky then good. Hopefully the Democratic Congress will be like an episode of Three’s Company – where Jack Tripper gets himself into a huge mess because of a misunderstanding, but somehow it all works out in the end. And there is one thing about the U.S. that we can all take comfort in – being the richest country in the world enables us to afford really bad governance, no matter how you define bad. Not without a cost, but still we can afford it. And something tells me my share of that bill is about to go up.

5 Comments:

Anonymous said...

And again the partisan Hatcher misses out on claiming at least minimal responsibility for his part of the bill going up. Did we sleep through the last four years of record budgets and increases in the size of government? Did we miss the mess created by his party with their idealism disguised as helping the Iraqi's to their own end? Did we forget that the party that created Saddam, and didn't seal the deal when it came time to actually take care of deposing him and stabilizing his country, totally ignored every legitimate military expert in world and went wtih Rumsfeld's plan? My, how the short term memory keeps the last four years of inaction by the Bush administration and complete lack of congressional oversight from the same party from seeing reality......

These particles are held together by dark forces called morons, whichare surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons.

The symbol for Bushcronium is "W".

Bushcronium's mass actually increases over time, as morons randomly interact with various elements in the atmosphere and become assistant deputy neutrons in a Bushcronium molecule forming isodopes.

This characteristic of moron-promotion leads some scientists to believe that Bushcronium is formed whenever morons reach a certain quantity in concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to a "Critical Morass".

When catalyzed with money, Bushcronium activates Foxnewsium, an element that radiates orders of magnitude more energy, albeit as incoherent noise, since it has 1/2 as many peons but twice as many morons.

Yeah, I've got to agree with Hatch that it is an absolute disgrace that the voters of Louisiana didn't throw Jefferson out on the first try. Well, at least they get a second chance in the runoff next month.

Before we get too upset about the Dems not demanding that their own criminals step down, let's just remember that the Republican controlled House ethics committee recently changed the ethics rules to allow indicted members of Congress to maintain leadership positions specifically because they knew one of their own, DeLay was soon to be indicted.

Pretty seedy behavior on both sides. And if you are really keeping score, you would do well to remember the old adage that power corrupts and that absolute power corrupts absolutely. Given the fact that the Reps have had absolute power for the past several years, it is no surprise that they are currently leading the race towards absolute corruption.

Now Unlimited Power is a totally different thing. No chance that Tony Robbins would become unlimitedly corrupt.